It's Nice To Have A Friend

53) The Dead & The Living

The spot next to Alice was empty when she woke up, figuring that FP got hungry and had made himself some breakfast already. She got out of bed too and walked into the living room, but nobody was there. She scanned the kitchen counter for a note and checked her phone for a text, but no luck.

To make sure the smell of fresh eggs hadn't lured him across the hall, she made her way over there. Four pair of eyes looked at her as she barged in, but none of those were from FP.

"Isn't FP here?" She asked confused, believing that if he wasn't at home he couldn't be anywhere else than at their friends' place.

"No, why?" Hermione asked.

"We would go shopping for our apartment today, but he wasn't in bed anymore when I woke up." Alice frowned.

"I am worried about him. What if it's all too much too soon for him?" She sat down at the kitchen table as she looked around the room with insecure eyes.

"It will be fine, Alice. Would you feel better if we would go around town to see where he's hanging out?" Poppy stood up, believing that it would help her feel less worried if they'd find him.

"He probably woke up early and took a long walk with Hot Dog, don't you think?" Fred said, thinking that FP probably just forgot to leave a note.

"Yeah, I think so too." Poppy gave Alice an assuring smile, but it didn't make her feel less worried.

"Come, it will be good to get some fresh air. You've been way too busy with moving."

Poppy extended her hand to take her back to the other apartment so she could get changed, and make sure they'd find her brother. Alice gave her a grateful smile. She just needed to know for sure that he was okay.

**

Poppy gazed at Alice as they made their way to the diner, finding it odd that she had been very silent. Something deeper was going on, and she took the risk to ask about it.

"Did something happen between you and FP that is making you so worried now?" Poppy irked her eyebrow, making Alice turn her head to look at her.

"Things between me and FP haver never gone the way they were supposed to. It's hard to believe they will now." Alice said quietly, shaking her head a little. Everything had been so perfect, it was no wonder one way or another things needed to crumble down. She just had a bad feeling.

"My brother really loves you, Alice." Poppy said, without a doubt.

"He is not going to run out on you, not in a million years." She assured her, as they entered the diner.

It was filled with customers, but FP wasn't in sight. Alice exhaled deeply. This was his favorite place. Where else could he be?

"Since he's not at Pop's, I have a gut feeling where he might be." Alice said suddenly, recalling the conversation she had with him not long ago.

She truly believed that she and FP were good and that he didn't hold a grudge. She trusted him. There was however one person he did hold a grudge against and rightfully so.

**

The gravel crunching under his shoes was unfamiliar to him. All those years and he'd never set one foot in the graveyard. Some people just weren't worth visiting. But now he had something important to say, and he'd do it only once.

There he stood, in front of a tombstone that said Forsythe Pendleton The First. Beloved Serpent King, Husband and Father. Beloved my ass, FP thought.

At times like these he wondered why he had even tried to give his dad a stone in the first place. If it weren't for the Serpents, he probably wouldn't have had one.